{"id":9893,"date":"2018-05-14T13:45:09","date_gmt":"2018-05-14T19:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oddwalkministries.com\/oddblog\/?p=9893"},"modified":"2018-05-14T13:45:59","modified_gmt":"2018-05-14T19:45:59","slug":"already-not-yet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/oddwalkministries.com\/oddblog\/2018\/05\/14\/already-not-yet\/","title":{"rendered":"Already, Not Yet"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Side note – this is a pretty terrible Photoshop hack right here…<\/p><\/div>\n

At the Hammond-Johnson house, we are getting some landscaping done.\u00a0 <\/span>Right now, it’s the backyard, which always was a bit of a jungle – an empty and not well maintained rectangle that was not real usable space for us.\u00a0 <\/span>But, since we finally sold our old home last year, we’ve begun making needed upgrades to our present home.\u00a0 <\/span>In the backyard, we’ve redone a parking space and a gate off the alley, added a storage shed, a patio area of pavers, and had the whole thing leveled and are now just awaiting sod.<\/p>\n

Well, that’s not the only thing we’re awaiting.\u00a0 <\/span>Erin has, for many years now, longed for the day when she might have a pool in the backyard again, after spending many of her childhood years with one right off the back deck.\u00a0 <\/span>As we both work, generally speaking, for the Church, we are of limited means, but a small pool is actually not out of the question.\u00a0 <\/span>But, it may yet be some time – we would probably wait for the end of the season sales to start to try to get the best deal we can, which would mean another Summer without a pool in the backyard.<\/p>\n

So, while our backyard, in a few days, will look finished up, it really won’t be, until some unknown time in the future.\u00a0 <\/span>Life in the Church is like that as well – not really finished yet, and not until some unknown time down the road.<\/p>\n

We just celebrated Jesus’ ascension, and will soon celebrate the coming of the Spirit at pentecost.\u00a0 <\/span>Jesus’ death and resurrection earned for us a new life and a “New Jerusalem” but we’re not there yet.\u00a0 <\/span>Jesus’ ascension and the arrival of the Spirit show us that same thing – where he has gone, we one day hope to follow – but not yet.\u00a0 <\/span>“Already, and not yet” is one of the overlooked paradoxes of our Christian faith, I think.\u00a0 <\/span>This odd in-between time is hard to wrap our heads around.\u00a0 <\/span>To wit: most of us view heaven as the ultimate and final destination of our souls, but I think that’s only because that’s what it’s been for 2,000 years. Your grandparents (or even parents) might have had to memorize this answer from the Baltimore Catechism once upon a time: “God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him for ever in heaven.”\u00a0 <\/span>But wait – isn’t that ultimate goal, as recited in the Creed every Sunday, the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come?<\/p>\n

It feels, sometimes, as if our Church has lost that sense of expectation after all this time.\u00a0 <\/span>Do we, like the early apostles might have, glance up at each passing cloud and wonder, is this the one which is bringing Jesus back to us?\u00a0 <\/span>When will Christ come again?\u00a0 <\/span>Is it today?\u00a0 <\/span>Am I ready?\u00a0 <\/span>These are the sorts of things we pray over at the end of each Church year and into advent as well but this is also a perfect time to reexamine our lives and our faith.\u00a0 <\/span>Are you ready?\u00a0 <\/span>How can you be more ready? \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the Hammond-Johnson house, we are getting some landscaping done.\u00a0 Right now, it’s the backyard, which always was a bit of a jungle – an empty and not well maintained rectangle that was not real usable space for us.\u00a0 But, since we finally sold our old home last year, we’ve begun making needed upgrades to…<\/p>\n

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